


Ice-like

by ashings



Category: EXO (Band), Figure Skating RPF, K-pop
Genre: China, Ice Skating, Luhan - Freeform, Shanghai - Freeform, cpop - Freeform, figure skating, kpop, men's figure skating - Freeform, men's ice skating, yuzuru hanyu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-04-07 06:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14074578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashings/pseuds/ashings
Summary: The last thing Luhan ever expected was to leave Exo.Correction, the last thing Luhan ever expected was to find a reason to live with the help of an Olympic men's figure skating gold medalist.





	1. Forward

**Author's Note:**

> This is a previously written fic, just a quick drabble. If you recognize it, you've probably read it on my account on asianfanfics.net. This one has a few minor tweaks as I posted it on here, but the plot is still the same.  
> Enjoy!!

Luhan _never_ expected that he would devote more than one day a year to figure skating. Growing up, he'd visit a local rink maybe once a year during the snowy months with his parents, or on dates when he got older. When he moved to Seoul, he stopped thinking about ice skating completely. He had no time, mainly because he was a freshly debuted kpop star. Even when he returned to China, he wouldn't even think about skating because of his injuries.

He never even thought about figure skaters, unless it was a year where the whole world tuned into the Winter Olympics. Those Februaries, he'd sit and stare at the tv screen, wondering how people managed to be so elegant, how they danced across the ice as if it was easy.

Well, as a dancer, he could sort of understand, but still. He always subconsciously gave them a lot of credit. 

But he never, you know, gave it any thought.


	2. 一

Life in Exo was traveling at breakneck speed. Over the two years he'd spend with the other eleven boys, Luhan sang and gave every moment his all. He loved his fans, he loved his members, but everything all seemed to speed up at once-

Everyone knew that Luhan had finally had enough, quit Exo, filed a lawsuit, and returned to China.

What the public didn't know about was his injury.

He thought he'd never recover.

He did his best to escape the public eye, and heal and rest, a chance he hadn't gotten in a long time.

Somehow, he managed to float around China for a little while without the press finding out. As 2014 bled into 2015, he switched from Beijing to Chengdu to Hangzhou to Shanghai, hoping for some new life experiences. He couldn't seem to escape all the Exo business. He already missed eleven of his brothers enough without the media throwing it in his face, reminding him every time he walked down the street, scrolled through the news, or even checked his own Instagram or Weibo. Of course, the whole world had to tune in to the most exposed moment of his life.

Why did he want to be forgotten?

For the first few months of 2015, Luhan mostly hid in his brand new apartment in Shanghai. He slept until late morning, exercised in the apartment gym with sunglasses and hats, shopped for food at the tiny market around the corner, messily failed at trying to cook for himself, and read in his apartment.

Nighttime was his favorite, the view he managed to get of the city skyline made him feel a little bit less like the latest topic, a little bit more like just a tiny part of the working city.


	3. 二

Just across the street from his apartment in the beginning of March, a lot of people began to give the building down a few blocks a lot of attention. 

He pasted his hands to the glass of his living room window and peered down the street.

_Please tell me the press doesn't know I'm here._

That was his first thought.

His next was that he really shouldn't panic, that would only attract more attention, especially if he wasn't the cause of this flurry.

The highlight of Luhan's week occurred that night.

He went to the drugstore around the corner and bought a tube of bleach, some blue hair dye, and an ugly "I ❤️ Shanghai" t-shirt.

Then, he went home, bleached his already completely dead hair over his shower, and dyed it blue.

He watched the cerulean blue color streak the bowl of his porcelain sink.

He kind of liked it.

He had recently posted a picture of himself with light brown hair on Instagram, so he hoped this would throw people off from recognizing him for at least a week.

The next day, he sported a beanie he dug out from a bin of two year old clothes, a pair of Gucci sunglasses, and some baggy clothes and took a trip down the street to see why that building was still crowded. 

A sign was posted outside of a large, venue-like building he'd had no reason to pay attention to before now that read:

**UNDER CONSTRUCTION: ISU FIGURE SKATING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015**

Luhan turned right around and walked straight back to his apartment building.

_Did I just waste my money and the health of my hair just to find out that there's figure skating going on later this month?_

* * *

He boiled himself a pot of tea and sat down cross-legged on his couch under a fluffy blanket he'd order online a few weeks ago, set his tea next to him, and pulled up his laptop.

He didn't really have anything else better to do.

He clicked onto YouTube, a luxury granted only in the city, and searched up "Women's Figure Skating Worlds 2014." The first video that popped up was a video of a woman named Mao Asada.

Needless to say, he was stunned.

He opened up a new tab and typed in "Japanese figure skaters."

A Wikipedia page popped up, and he clicked the Chrome extension to translate the page.

The first person to appear on the list was someone named Yuzuru Hanyu.

He clicked open another tab, refusing to click away from the beauty of Mao's performance, and typed in Yuzuru's name.

The first video that popped up was titled "Record Breaking Short Program: Yuzuru Hanyu Sochi Olympics 2014."

Luhan spent the rest of the day drinking tea and binge watching men's figure skating, Mao's tab still open in the corner.


	4. 三

A week later, with his hair redyed black and a newfound appreciation for figure skating, Luhan reached the conclusion that he and Yuzuru Hanyu looked alike.

He had come across this revelation sitting in the middle of a café, drinking an Americano and allowing himself to feel nostalgic. He kicked the remnants of the drink down his throat and stood up to ask for a refill, grabbing his bag as well to prevent it from being stolen.

Why did he even show his face in public at all? This question burned in the back of his mind as the baristas began to give each other the Side Eye, as he began to call it. He could tell that they started to figure out that yes, he was _the_ Luhan.

"Thanks," he said, grabbing his coffee and turning around to sit back down without answering their unasked questions. Luckily, his window-side table was still free, so he made a beeline towards it, just as someone plopped a huge duffle bag down on it.

"Excuse me, that's-" Luhan looked up. The man with his hand on the duffle bag looked like him.

Luhan snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "Yuzuru Hanyu!"

Yuzuru looked up at him and said something in Japanese.

Whoops. He hadn't factored in the language barrier. And his English was a bit rusty. Crap.

"You're Yuzuru Hanyu?" Luhan asked in English. Yuzuru nodded after a second, a hesitant look on his face. "Your.... skate in Sochi Olympics was very good!"

Yuzuru bowed slightly. "Thanks. Are you..?"

Luhan winced. It was nice to forget for a split second that basically all of Asia knew who he was. He nodded.

"I'm sorry," Yuzuru said after a second. "I like your music, however. Nice voice."

It was Luhan's turn to give a casual bow and thank the other man.

"Do you want to sit?" Luhan asked. He remembered that technically, Yuzuru had put his strangely large duffle bag down first, so it was his table, but it was too late to sweat the details now. Yuzuru nodded, smiled, bowed a little, and turned to awkwardly get some coffee.

Luhan immediately opened up a Chinese-to-Japanese translator on his phone, and began typing out what he wanted to say. By the time Yuzuru sat down with his coffee, Luhan had clicked translate and slid this phone around.

Yuzuru peered down at the phone.

> My name is Luhan, it is very nice to meet you. I only recently discovered your skating, as the rink for Worlds is just down the block from my apartment.

At least, that's what he meant to say. Of course, the translator probably screwed up some of the grammar, but judging by Yuzuru's face, he got the general gist of what he was trying to get across.

Yuzuru gently slid Luhan's phone closer to himself and began typing a response, clicked translate, and slid Luhan's phone back across the table with both hands.

> I'm sorry, your bad news. Because it has a lot of injuries this game before, I hope you can with some form of thinking about your way. I hear some of you music and I really like it. You do, because it is also a good dancer.

The translation was understandably sloppy, but understandable. Luhan previously read up on the various injuries Yuzuru had gone through throughout the season, from collisions to surgeries to ankle injuries.

> The press is discouraging, it makes me not want to make music. I only recently started dancing a little agan because my injury healed. I hope I can find inspiration soon. Seeing you skate has been quite nice.

A small smile spread onto Yuzuru's face after reading the message.

> It is nice to listen. I think you can also enjoy skating.

Luhan sat back a bit, looking up at Yuzuru. Yuzuru grabbed the phone back and began to type again.

> Do you have Line? I can give you my number. After the world, you can skate together.

Luhan smiled for the first time in a long time.

> I'll see you at worlds.


	5. 四

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long. It's been a little crazy, and sometimes I had the opportunity to post and didn't. A lot, actually.  
> It's here now, so I hope you'll forgive me :)

Yuzuru, or Yuzu, as he insisted, and Luhan texted a few times between their first meeting and Worlds. The two of them weren't best friends by the time the competition rolled around but it was nice for Luhan to have someone to talk to other than lawyers or publicity managers. Yuzu explained the different competitions throughout the skating season, and did his best to help luhan distinguish between the different kinds of jumps. That was a bit of a mess, due to the language barrier, but it brought the both of them some laughs.

Luhan started venturing out of his apartment a bit more, to the dismay of his publicity managers. His main goal lately was to find a small Pooh bear stuffed animal he could throw into the kiss and cry (a term he'd learned no thanks to Yuzu, Line translate, and Google) after Yuzu's performance, as a thanks for his kindness and understand of his situation.

It was nice to have a friend again.

Just in case, Luhan dragged one of his publicity managers with him to the Worlds short program. His manager made sure he was nice and disguised by the time he walked into the arena, the first time he'd been in a venue that large since one of his Exo concerts.

It gave him a bit of a rush.

Did he miss it?

By the time Yuzu had gotten on the ice, Luhan was already in love with the sounds of the blades on the rink, the passion that rolled off of each skater, the control and elegance and the beauty of skating. Luhan was on the edge of his seat, cheering and screaming along with the figure skating fangirls surrounding him, before remembering his manly reputation, and beginning to calm himself.

Yuzu positioned himself on the ice, and waited as the music started for his cue.

Yuzu's head lolled to the music, and he began to whirl around the ice. Luhan could immediately easily feel the emotions that hew as trying to convey.

Not to mention that he missed dancing and expressing himself in that form as well. He wasn't exactly on the dance line of Exo, but he was in no way a bad dancer. He'd practiced too much for that.

Luhan could picture himself on the ice, skating to one of his own songs. He'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit that he had started writing his own music in the downtime he spent alone in his apartment. He could skate to his own songs. He could.

And so could Yuzuru, apparently. His program was incredible, otherworldly. After his performance spectators from al around the arena were throwing Pooh bears down onto the ice. Admittedly, it made Luhan feel a touch unoriginal.

But Luhan did still push around the crowd to directly above the kiss and cry, and launched the tiny stuffed Pooh bear down.

He'd bought the zip up kind of stuffed animal, and had a little "Jiāyóu!" note inside. On the back of the note was a tiny thank you in what was probably terrible Japanese, signed Luhan.

Spreading some good karma did make him feel a little better as well.


	6. 五

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really should create a schedule for posting chapters... I really am sorry. I hope you're enjoying these.

His managers wouldn't let him go the second day, when the skaters would be performing their free programs.

"But that's ridiculous, it's right down the street," Luhan protested. "I already bought the tickets!"

"Yes, but what will someone think if they see you and recognize you? There's so many reporters down there, what if they see you leave without a taxi or public transport? They'll rightfully conclude that you live nearby, then they'll follow you home, and boom! There goes this apartment and this discreet little life."

"Way to kill a man's dreams," Luhan replied drily. "I was going to support a friend. A real man supports his friends."

"Sucks," said the other manager. 

Luhan kicked them out after that, and pulled up a livestream online, frowning at the tickets on the coffee table.

The livestream took three whole minutes to load, and when it did, there were just commentators. Luhan sighed, and then got up to make some tea.

He wondered if Yuzu would have his phone on him. Probably not. It was worth texting him anyways, this was Worlds.

> Good luck, Yuzu! You're an excellent skater, you've got this.

Luhan chucked his phone onto his bed in the next room and sat down in front of the livestream again.

After watching a man named Javier Fernández skate (although he was rooting for Yuzuru, it was impossible to deny the mastery of his skills despite his mistakes), the video shut down.

"What the hell?" Luhan exclaimed into his empty apartment."This isn't what I paid for!"

The livestream was free.

* * *

 

He checked the new for the first time in weeks the next morning. Under an article about Tao breaking his leg was an article about the competition. 

Yuzuru scored second under that Javier Fernández guy.

> Congrats on second place!

It was a few minutes and a cup of tea later that Luhan's phone dinged with a response.

> Thanks. I know I can do better, though.

Luhan rolled his eyes.

> Don't kid yourself, you skated well. Going back to Japan or training more in Canada?
> 
> Not sure, my coach might have me come back to Canada soon for World Teams. But my hotel here is nice, I'll stay for a few more days
> 
> Coffee soon?
> 
> I could teach you to skate

Luhan laughed out loud to the apartment.

> Ok. But I really shouldn't be out in public during the day.
> 
> I'll see what I can do

Luhan locked his phone and returned to his breakfast.

He might actually have something to do!

* * *

 

Luhan was laying on the ground, holding up a pillow with his feet as the sun set when his phone dinged next to him again.

Determined not to let the pillow fall, he slowly turned his head and reached out his arm towards his phone. He twisted his hips a bit too, but-

"Oof!"

Luhan shoved the pillow off his face, sat up, and grabbed his phone.

> I convinced a rink to stay open after hours.

The next text was the address.


	7. 六

Both Yuzu and Luhan underestimated how awkward meeting face to face again would be because of the language barrier.

"Hi!" Luhan called out in English across the rink. A very tired looking girl yawned behind the skate rental booth.

"Hello!" Yuzu called back excitedly. "Get skates!"

Luhan turned to the half-asleep girl and got some skates in Chinese.

Yuzu walked over to the side of the rink in his skates as Luhan laced up his rentals.

"You skated very well!" Luhan said.

"Thank you! I tried."

Luhan barked out a laugh before standing up.

"I can do this," he said to himself in Mandarin, waddling over to the entrance of the rink. He stepped out onto the ice with one foot and immediately grabbed onto the side.

Yuzu stepped out onto the ice after him and immediately skated towards the middle with a small single jump. Luhan almost stuck his tongue out at him.

"First, get used to the ice," Yuzu said, gliding over. He demonstrated sliding one skate back and forth while standing still, then the other. Luhan followed suit.

After not falling over, he tentatively skated forward.

"Stop like this," Yuzu said, bringing his right foot horizontally behind his left and gently pressing into the ice. 

Luhan picked up the skill immediately.

Yuzu spent the next hour teaching Luhan some basic skating skills. He seemed to be an extraordinarily quick learner. In the back of his mind, he connected skating to his past in modern dance.

"Want to put on any music?" Yuzu asked.

Luhan immediately flushed, thinking back to one of the songs he'd been working on with a private studio. Technically, the music wasn't even legal.

But Yuzu only wanted to play some music, so Luhan skated over to the side, grabbed Yuzu's phone just to double check he wouldn't record anything, and pressed play on a voice memo. His phone couldn't play as loud as a speaker could, but it was still audible through the whole rink. He glanced over at the skate booth lady, but she seemed to be sound asleep. 

"New song?" Yuzu asked. Luhan nodded.

Yuzu began to skate around the rink, building speed through broad strokes, and began to prep for a jump just as the beat dropped, which Luhan guessed was a quadruple, based on the length of the jump.

Luhan clapped, but Yuzu just ushered him onto the ice. He didn't really seem to be paying much attention to whatever he did, actually, it looked like he was running through his short program choreography on the other side of the rink. 

Luhan pushed forward onto the ice, gazing around him at the rink. The ceilings were high enough to notice, but they had an unfinished look, with cement pipings climbing up from the walls. On his side of the rink, a big window looked out at the city, right in the middle of all the lights and bustle that he loved. 

He turned away from the window and extended his right leg out behind him and leaned forward.

"Straighten your leg!" Yuzu shouted from across the rink. Luhan straightened his leg a bit more, and raised his arms to his sides, then curled up and spun around for a while, letting his own voice guide him.

He was skating to his own music. With a friend.

"Try spinning!" Yuzu shouted again. 

Somehow the lonely-sounding backtrack made the perfect entrance for a spin as his voice flowed into the chorus.

Of course, his technique wasn't that good, and he could hear Yuzu's stifled giggling across the rink. Luhan tried to copy a spin from Yuzu's short program, where he crouched closer to the ice with one leg extended (he forgot the name even though he could have sworn Yuzu told him yesterday), but-

"Oop!" Luhan moved his arm out from under his back and allowed himself to collapse face-up on the ice. He stared up at the piping on the ceiling, not moving, at least until Yuzu pulled up next to him with a hockey stop, spraying ice all over his face. 

"Thanks," Luhan said, struggling a little bit with the -th sound that always tripped him up. He flushed a bit. Yuzu pulled out his classic smile and reached out his arm. Luhan reached up and grabbed it, standing up to reach for his phone. The music had long since stopped playing.

"Want to get some food?" Luhan asked, skating slowly towards the side of the rink. Yuzu nodded.

"One more skate," Yuzu amended, speeding down the rink away from his friend, and leaping into a series of quads.

Way to show him up.


	8. 七

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so, this is it! i think this took literally 2 years to post!! im the worst!!  
> as of now, this is the only piece i have uploaded, but i think that might change soon. we'll see  
> thank you for reading my weird, short, abstract-ish luhan yuzu fic??? thank you

> _September 15th, 2015_

 

_"Luhan, have you had any inspirations for your new album?"_

Luhan sat back in his chair, piecing together an answer. The first image that carved itself into his mind was a flash of icy snow, the smell of rental skates and cold, and the blur of Shanghai you could see from inside the rink.

He blinked that memory away, determined to not let the press ruin ice skating for him too.

The next thought that arrived was the rush of watching the legendary Yuzuru Hanyu skate in Worlds in person.

After blinking that memory away too, the inescapable dream of him skating to his own music resurfaced as well.

Meeting Yuzuru, his first friend in a long time. Speaking of which, he should really look up where the Grand Prix Final is this year, to show his support in person, the way Yuzuru did for him.

"The strength of my family, friends, and fans really helped to motivate me throughout the process of this album's creation."

_"What can you tell us about this album?"_

"This album is quite close to my heart. It is titled  _Reloaded_ , please look forward to it!"


End file.
